


It's Hard and Nobody Understands

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Land of Wrath and Angels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I had thought this was a game of destruction and might, not of exploration. The landscape irritated me in its infertility. Vast, somber cathedrals and castles thrust towards the barren sky, offering no sign of life nor movement, not even a flag to whip in the wind. I began to wonder why I had ventured out."</p><p>Set within the canon universe, exploring Eridan's journey from entering the game to his death. Some pseudo-Lovecraftian themes and general creepiness, especially in later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Hard and Nobody Understands

It wasn't the conversation with Feferi nor her rude departure from Trollian that made my eyes sting. It was definitely that obnoxious glare thrusting through my windows, sharp and blinding, worse than the rays of the Alterian sun. I turned away, leaving my computer and the fruitless conversation to don my alchemized sunglasses, dampening the unnatural brightness. To my annoyance, the pain in my eyes remained.

Feferi's words still swam in my head, despite my valiant efforts to ignore them. I didn't need to be taken care of; her accusations were baseless. Well, at least exaggerated.

I glanced out the window again. Even with shades, the scenery struck me as slightly foreboding. I knew I had to leave my hive eventually, but I rationalized my hesitation: I had no desire to end up like that blind, screen-licking fool, not on my first step outside my door into the world of the game. On the other hand, my sunglasses were the finest available – just like all my possessions – so I was in little danger.

Anger at Feferi and anticipation at entering – and, obviously, dominating – the game clutched my chest tight enough that I could deny the twinge of fear that curled up inside me. My certainty grew with each step towards the door. I would prove to her and her pathetic server player, to her and all of the land-dwelling scum, that I didn't need anyone's help. An assertion of superior - of _royal_ \- might and will.

My assertion was passionate and entirely true.

I strode through the bleary landscape, ghosts of tempests whipping past me, my long scarf fluttering behind me as I walked. Fitting for one of my blood for even the weather to acknowledge my presence so.

My assertion was firm and wholehearted.

Each of my steps fell onto gray dust, sick little clouds coughing at my feet. It wasn't until I had gone quite some distance that I realized my footsteps faded just moments behind me, as if the landscape was sterilizing itself of my presence. Nor did any gusts disturb the dust. Only my movements. Nothing more.

My assertion lasted for all of two hours.

I had thought this was a game of destruction and might, not of exploration. The landscape irritated me in its infertility. Vast, somber cathedrals and castles thrust towards the barren sky, offering no sign of life nor movement, not even a flag to whip in the wind. I began to wonder why I had ventured out.

My assertion lasted until I caught my first glimpse of the things that dwelt here.

Something snaked in the sky above me.

I frowned, assuming it was a trick of the light, but no, there was something slithering above me, moving like something legless through the grass.

The form I could discern was serpentine and massive with vast, feathered wings. From this distance I could only guess at its size, but it seemed nearly as big as a whale. Moving as no flying creature should, wings flapping lazily and out-of-sync with its movements, it resembled nothing so much as an angel of destruction.

It wasn't until I fled to take shelter in the nearest archway, breath burning in my lungs as I tried to recover from the frantic sprint that I wondered how I had seen it against the sky, white on blinding white.

Why was everything here black or white, monochromatic taken to a ludicrous extreme? I wondered how I hadn't noticed it before, but if I was honest with myself, the distraction of Feferi still shadowed my mind. How could a landscape look bleak in comparison to the depths of my spurned soul?

But now the bleakness surrounded me and seemed to suck me into it, not it into me. I looked down at my own clothes. There were reassuringly bright blues and violets, rightful colors of nobility. My eyes returned to the landscape. Black. White. My mind was swept with a sense of ill ease, as I realized there might be no color here but my own, no company here but myself. Colorless and loveless as long as this game lasted, be it a day or a solar sweep. I wouldn't glorify the situation enough to deem it eerie, but it was unpleasant.

The sound of the winds should have been comforting, warding off an otherwise deafening silence as I rested with my back against stone. They were not. They whispered like spirits of the dead, whistling as they twisted around the gothic, hueless structures that dotted the barren landscape. The thing was gone from the sky. Or camouflaged, it occurred to me in an unnerving thought.

I gripped Ahab's Crosshairs tighter, knuckles whitening. I looked all about again, as if something would change, as if the thing would reemerge, but I saw naught but dreary buildings and blank skies.

I hated this game.


End file.
